1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates to a telecommunications system with disparate intelligent peripherals that provide an integrated telecommunications service for a call from a calling party calling a service number.
2. Background Information
A need exists to aggregate the services provided by a telecommunications system with multiple disparate intelligent peripherals. For example, the functionality of one interactive voice response device may not be available on another interactive voice response device due to technical considerations. As a result, a service offered by an interactive voice response device may be unnecessarily limited because a particular function or service is unavailable, even though the function or service is available from another interactive voice response device in the telecommunications network.
An intelligent peripheral may not be able to support a particular function or service because the function or service uses a protocol that is not supported by the intelligent peripheral. Furthermore, the intelligent peripheral may not have the processing ability or available memory to support a highly complex program developed long after the intelligent peripheral is produced and installed.
In addition, when improvements can be made to an intelligent peripheral service, the improvements may have to be entirely provisioned for each intelligent peripheral that offers the service. A service provider may not be able to justify the costs to upgrade the functionality of every intelligent peripheral that would benefit from the new or upgraded function or service.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system that integrates the services of multiple disparate intelligent peripherals. For example, an intelligent peripheral is needed that will recognize when to obtain the services of another intelligent peripheral. Additionally, an intelligent peripheral is needed for initiating communications with another intelligent peripheral so that the services of the other intelligent peripheral can be provided to a calling party. Moreover, intelligent peripherals are needed that can interact with each other in order to coordinate the services provided to a calling party. In addition, a system is needed that integrates the services of disparate intelligent peripherals using communications networks such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or an advanced intelligent network (AIN).
To solve the above-described problems, a system is provided for integrating the services of multiple disparate intelligent peripherals.